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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

H8 U, SUCCESS.

(successful dogs)

(This may not make sense to anyone. It's kind of personal like genital warts, but for those who also have things they would rather not talk about, read on and best of luck)

THE SUCCESSFUL PERSON, AKA LIFE SUCCESS STORY PERSON, AND WHY YOU CAN STOP LOOKING DOWN ON ME AS A FUCKING FAILURE JUST BECAUSE I THOUGHT MYSELF INTO A PICKLE OF A JAM AND REALISED SUCCESS HAS NO DEFINITIVE CONNECTION WITH WHAT IS GOOD OR THE RIGHT WAY TO LIVE

SO. SUCCESS STORIES.

(e.g. Tony Robbins, Madonna, Jared (Subway), Paul Holmes (although he's feeling it now, poor old successful sod (rich daughters are even worse than those who consider themselves "successful" especially if they think they are successful for appearing on television)), Donald Trump, Billy Ray Cyrus (and its offspring), Silvio Berlusconi, Kim Jong-Il, Ben Johnson, MJ, Any record holder, DOUBLE POINTS FOR past record holders (you're not even the best anymore, gutz bro) and Six Figure Bureaucrats (there are too many vowels in what you are, mother fucker).

It doesn't mean anything.

A MEASURE OF 'SUCCESS'

(There is at most one correct answer for each of the following questions... some have no answer. "Such is life" and all that)

1) You're a successful person relative to what/who?

2) You have succeeded in life, but at what cost?

3) You have succeeded in life, but for whose benefit?

4) You obtained the desired outcome... now what?

5) Success at this juncture has guaranteed happiness for the rest of your days?

6) You have a high income relative to your peers. Can you make the assumption you deserve it more than them?

7) Does your success result in you having excess? Does that mean you deserve to indulge in it how you please?

8) Did you get it all on your own? Would the same opportunities have presented themselves if you were born in another country?

9) Is success in society something we imagine to make ourselves happy and give us something to do before we get too old to compete?

10) Did you do it to feel better about yourself/make yourself look better to others?

11) Does being a more desirable mate affect what you choose to do?

12) Are we monkeys?

13) What are you trying to do?

A person can succeed at winning a match, climbing a mountain, yes I suppose, but I don't want to do things just to become a "Successful Person" and besting my fellow man. So I'm forgetting about the societies self important success story chumps and about my own success.

Everyone can live at their own pace.

Not competing.

Besides, Jesus was a bit of a failure when you really think about it...

h8 u jesus / competing / life / etc.

4 comments:

  1. I don't agree that "success" (however one defines it) doesn't mean anything. But I agree that it might not be all that important.

    Nevertheless, do you not feel like the things that you would (if you had the choice) judge your own success by are important to you? (Not the "success" itself, but the things that you did/have that make it up). And do you not judge others by these criteria? It seems like people do, but I don't think that's something to be worried about; judgement is a part of human nature, a part of life.

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  2. I'm not sure if i understand the question in relation to the post??

    I know it's a dumb post too, it's kind of a poem minus the poetic language lol. I'm trying to present an idea and express a feeling in a roundabout way cause it's too much writing to explain directly. A slight tug of to the left of what some would have thought a very direct concept of how to be. The post itself I hoped was kind of self aware of it's flaws. Full of disclaimers and tosh.

    I will try to explain/defend it's relevance though... cause I mean, it's good sport.

    Im not redefining success. It's about reasons behind success. It's about what one persons success means to another(or shouldn't mean). You're point about judging someone by what they did to be successful can also be as relevant when judging someone by what they did but ultimately failed. The one who gained personal success may not be a better quality than the one who failed. That's my point, the success means nothing much to me. It's the intentions, it's the reasons behind success or failure, the result is not what attracts me to a person. In saying that, there's more I'm not sure about in your question!

    No, I don't judge others by the criteria of my own success because I'm not sure what I have succeeded at. Unless we go into things like, I have succeeded in making the friends I have, or I succeeded in eating tonight. But the post was driving at those who succeed for recognition and their ego's(even if they don't realise it) not success as a word.

    It may seem like a distant and foolish ideal to many, but fuck it, I believe you don't need to judge people by anything. You can just enjoy them. I'm actually pretty confident that the people I don't trust or have time for at all now, are those with aggendas, the ones trying to get one up on people around them, those who crave success for the sake of success and recognition.

    It just doesn't seem like a good way to be.

    Last of all, saying something is human nature, and a part of life does not mean you don't have to worry about it. A part of life should be choosing how you live it. It's not a race with lanes that you follow in a straight line to get somewhere first. I was hoping to kind of show I wanted to get away from that idea of how to be human in questions 10 to 13. Sure things may seem that way now, when you're trying to win the race, but I don't think in reality that result exists. You know that win at the end, and it seems silly to base you're life on competing for it.

    This is just ideas. Maybe not really possible, but it's comforting to me to stop and at least try and consider the insignificance of things. Like in high school, it seemed like being a good rugby player meant something, it didn't(well it never did to me, and I grew to have a strong dislike for the players it did mean something to). Like now it seems like so many things matter. They don't. I try and get a result, for better or worse, things tick over, but I think there's more pleasure in meaningless obscurity, unexplainable fucken cascading thoughts and emotions with all the empty space in between where people want answers to be. It comes from no where, which is the same place I'm going.

    Deep


    Please don't take me too seriously. I guess I failed in explaining the post just now. I don't know if that's relevant, but it sure is fucken typical mate.

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  3. "You know Marge, sometimes I think you and I are very different people".

    What about judging people morally? Surely that's important. Else, how would we know who are 'good' people? I mean if some dude was out doing some rapes, and even if that made him happy, I'd want to make a judgement about that, tell him he's a bad man or something. Or people that commit numerous other 'moral' crimes.

    At the very least, surely judgement is useful in this respect? (And it doesn't have to be a race - "I'm more moral than you" - but just, "that dude right there is a shit dude. Everyone else is pretty alright").


    But, no, I can see the attraction to the sort-of-existentialist point of view. Carve out your own path, and all that.

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  4. I know. We work in very different ways. You are probably lucky cause to be honest, I can't claim to work well at all.

    Yeah, you'd have to judge people, that's right. I wont argue with that.

    Morality is intertwined and relevant to this post, although I never really thought of it as a moral thing, just a "hey, look at it from another point of view" thing.

    I have been really lame for the last while, going on about things which are "morally ambiguous". So many influences - social change, cultures crossing, intelligent punk, fucken Sacha Baron Cohen... You really can't force moral stand points on people. Thank goodness you explained some Kant to me lol.

    Maybe it works the same way as the other shit though, in terms of judging someone by their success. Morals are more important than the actual achievement. For example, if you wanted to rape, whether you succeeded or not, you are still a shitty rapist and I wont enjoy your company. I don't know how you would know though, but if I could know. The success is an indicator, and not as imortant as the underlying character of the rapist.


    For future reference James, I'm not going near rape as an example again... It could make those with different moral values from us uncomfortable. Even if it's not wrong, it's kind of morally ambiguous...

    lol sorry!!

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